HEDGE SPARROW, OR ACCENTOR.— Accentor moduldrius. 



eggs laid before the genial warmth oi spring has induced the green leaves to burst their 

 inclosures, it is easily seen, and is the first victim of the neophyte bird-nester, who pounces 

 upon its soft mossy walls and delicate blue eggs with exulting eagerness. The more 

 experienced nester, however, will never touch so easy a prey, caring nothing for eggs which 

 the veriest novice can discover. 



The nest is generally placed at a very low elevation, seldom more than two or three 

 feet from the ground, and it is rather large in proportion to the size of the bird. The 

 materials of which the structure is made are various mosses, wool, and hair, and the eggs 

 are usually five in number, of a bright bluish green colour. Sometimes, but very rarely, six 

 eggs are found in a single nest. Bird-nesting boys are not the only foes with whom the 

 hedge sparrow has to contend, for the cuckoo profits by the exposed position of the nest, 

 and lays her eggs in the home of the hedge sparrow more often than in that of any other 

 bird. There are generally two broods of young in the year, and when the nest is robbed, 

 the mother bird often lays three sets of five eggs in the course of the season, of which she 

 may think herself fortunate if she succeeds in rearing one. 



The song of the Hedge Accentor is sweet, but not varied nor powerful, and has a 

 peculiar plaintive air about it. The bird is a persevering songster, continuing to sing 

 throughout a large portion of the year, and only ceasing during the time of the ordinary 

 moult. Like many other warbling birds, it possesses considerable powers of imitation, and 

 can mock with some success the greater number of British song-birds. 



This bird is nearly as bold as the sparrow, and will sometimes take up its residence in 

 cities, where it soon gains the precociously impertinent airs that characterise all town 

 birds, speedily loses the bright rich brown and grey of its plumage, and assumes as 

 dingy a garb as that of the regular city sparrow. 



The colour of the Hedge Accentor is bluish grey, covered with small brown streaks upon 

 the head, and the back and sides of the neck. The back and wings are brown streaked 

 with a deeper tint of the same hue, and the quill-feathers of the wings and tail are of a 

 rather darker brown, and not quite so glossy. The chin, the throat, and upper part of the 

 breast are grey, and the lower part of the breast and the abdomen are white with a wash 



